I love you. (cross-culturally)
by Eric Paul Monroe on Aug.02, 2009, under Virtual Classroom
Please explain how you would say “I love you” to a person in your native language. If there exists a different approach (“I like you”, for example) given relationship or gender, please clarify to the best of your ability.
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August 3rd, 2009 on 15:34
Ik hou van jou
When you deeply care for someone’s personality, you might express these feelings of affection to this person by saying: “I love you”. Love is about trust, about being there for each other whenever needed. Love is unconditional.
My native language is Dutch . If I like someone very much like mentioned above, I say: “Ik hou van jou“. Unless of course this person doesn’t speak Dutch, like my Romanian-German boyfriend, who lives In the United States. To him I would probably say: “I love you”, but he would also understand: “Ich liebe dich“, or “Te ubesk“, respectively in German and in Romanian
The Dutch use ‘ Ik hou van jou‘ in exactly the same context and meaning as ‘I love you’. This also counts for ‘I like you’, which translated into Dutch would be: ‘Ik vind je leuk‘, or: ‘Ik vind je aardig‘. Liking someone is in a way a more superficial kind of affection than loving someone.
And then there is of course ‘being in love’. An impermanent nice-kind-of-crazy state of mind, which makes everything and everyone look beautiful, especially the person you are in love with. ‘Verliefd zijn‘ means ‘to be in love’. ‘Ik ben verliefd op jou‘ is Dutch for ‘I am in love with you’.
Being is love is great, except when you live an eleven hours flight apart from each other. Fortunately it is only a temporary craziness!
zusje
August 4th, 2009 on 20:21
Ik hou van jou
When you deeply care for someone’s personality, you might express
yourredundant feelings of affection to a person by saying: “I love you”. Love is about trust, about being there for each otherwhenever needed. Love iswordy unconditional.My native language is Dutch. If I love someone, I say: “Ik hou van jou“. Unless of course this person doesn’t speak Dutch, like my Romanian-German boyfriend, who lives In the United States. To him I would say: “I love you”, but he would also understand: “Ich liebe dich“, or “Te ubesk“, respectively in German and in Romanian punctuation
The Dutch use ‘Ik hou van jou‘ in exactly the same context and meaning as
thedefinite article Americans do, when they say: ‘I love you’. There are no contextual differences concerning ‘I like you’, which translated into Dutch would be: ‘Ik vind je leuk‘, or: ‘Ik vind je aardig‘. Liking someone is a more superficial kind of affection than loving someone.Love is not only about a romantic relationship. Parents love their children, children love their parents and their brothers and sisters, friends love their dear friends.
Falling in love, however, has everything to do with romance. The process of falling in love gets you in the impermanent nice-kind-of-crazy state of mind, which makes everything and everyone look beautiful, especially the person you are in love with. ‘Ik ben verliefd op jou‘ is Dutch for ‘I am in love with you’.
Being is love is great, unless you live an eleven hours hyphen usage flight apart from each other. Fortunately it punctuation, lexical development is only a temporary temporary, everlasting? illogical craziness! Love is everlasting
zusje
August 5th, 2009 on 19:34
Ik hou van jou
When you deeply care for someone’s personality, you might express feelings of affection to a person by saying: “I love you”. Love is about trust, about being there for each other.colon usage love is unconditional.
My native language is Dutch. If I love someone, I say: “Ik hou van jou“. Unless of course this person doesn’t speak Dutch, like my Romanian-German friend, who lives in the United States. To him I would say: “I love you”, but he would also understand: “Ich liebe dich“, or “Te ubesk“, respectively in German and
inredundantRomanian.The Dutch use ‘Ik hou van jou‘ in exactly the same context and meaning as Americans do
,unnecessary when they say: ‘I love you’. There are no contextual differences concerning ‘I like you’, which translated into Dutch would be: ‘Ik vind je leuk‘, or: ‘Ik vind je aardig‘. Liking someone is a more superficial kind of affection than loving someone.Love is not only about a romantic relationship. Parents love their children, children love their parents and their brothers and sisters,adverb: while friends love
theirredundant dear friends.Falling in love, however, has everything to do with romance. The process of falling in love gets you in the nice-kind-of-crazy state of mind, which makes everything and everyone look beautiful, especially the person you are in love with. Looks, smell, movements, or other physical attractions cause you to feel
thebutterflies. ‘Ik ben verliefd op jou‘ is Dutch for ‘I am in love with you’, or ‘I have a crush on you’.Being in love is great, unless you live an eleven-hour flight apart from each other, in which case itlexical development is comforting to know, that having a crush is only a temporary obsession.
Affectionate feelings for someone’s true personality may or may not arise from being in love, but if so, love is everlasting!
zusje
Great improvement and good luck on the iBT TOEFL on Saturday!
August 6th, 2009 on 17:23
Thank you! Yeah, I hope I’m lucky to get questions and statements about subjects near to my interest and fascination. Like I had in the practice test, which was mostly about biology and behavioral science. I noticed I scan articles much faster then. By the way, TOEFL is Friday @ 11am my time….(9 am GMT).
Have a lot of fun on Saturday evening! Party!!!
I did the ‘it-thing’ again!!! I can’t believe myself. Now you’ve ripped the paper and threw the pieces at my face for the second time
…in which case knowing, that having a crush is only a temporary obsession, is comforting.
something like this then?
August 8th, 2009 on 02:39
Deep in our hearts, there is always that place for those we love and care about more than any other thing or person in life, but we usually don’t have time or courage to tell others the way we really feel, instead we always think that they must know how we feel about them, but sometimes we really need to show our love and affection for those we love, not only because of them, but also because that will reflect on our life and then we will be surprised about how much love we have inside.
So at a moment of our choice, we would like to let out our real feelings for those we deeply appreciate and care about their presence in our life, and the best way to show someone we really care is by words and actions which make them feel special.
For sure, the words “I love you” are the most three beautiful words in the world, that we always dream of saying and hearing in return one day, knowing that by uttering those words we would give birth to a lifelong memory.
To be in love is to be in heaven on Earth. Love is the turning point in our destiny that changes things for ever, since it brings to life the courage we need to communicate with ourselves and also with others.
Love reveals the beauty that lies in everything around us and without love; life has no meaning or purpose.
Love is like making a jump to the unknown, you are excited and frighten at the same time, but as soon as you share each other’s feelings and letting each other know how much you really care, things begin to be different.
You know you are in love when all you have to do is to think about the object of your affection and it brings a smile to your face, when you feel depressed because you are not with him and then would give everything just to see him or to hear his voice. It is also that feeling when you wish your time with him never ends.
I am lucky to have that special person in my life, and for him I would say: you mean the world to me, you make my days happier just by being there, you are all what I can think about, you are the only one I can be myself with, and also you make me feel so special, that is simply why I say “انا بحبك” (ana bahebak).
August 8th, 2009 on 16:08
To Berry:
When you love someone with all your heart, you should never forget showing your affection, not only in actions but in words too. Expressing your feelings by letting the words out in the open, makes love more profound. You are absolutely right!
I am happy for you to have a special person in your life who is always there for you. If you let him read your post he must be touched, I’m sure. I am curious about the words you say to him in your language, since I cannot read the characters
August 8th, 2009 on 21:17
@ Zusje
Thank you very much.
Well, “انا بحبك” is the Arabic translation of “I love you”.
February 23rd, 2010 on 02:54
Personallypunctuation needed I think that you said “i love you” when you have deep feelings for someone. I mean you could liker her/him a lot and want to be with that special person all the time, you care about that person more than yourself. If that person is happy you are too, even if you are sad, if you look at that person you are already smiling.
Here in Mexico, we say: te amo, but it is a strong word. I think that you say it just when you really care about that person, as I said.
Or If you are just attracted by that person we say: me gustas, that is more superficial, about how that person looks.